Uncertainty over role for ElBaradei

Supporters of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi carry mock coffins during a symbolic funeral in Cairo on Saturday for the four men killed during clashes with police outside the Republican Guard headquarters a day earlier.

Photo: Reuters

The choice of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei as Egypt’s interim prime minister ran into opposition within the coalition that backed former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow, as supporters and opponents of the ousted Islamist planned rival rallies yesterday.

The official MENA news agency on Saturday reported that interim president Adly Mansour had appointed Morsi’s outspoken liberal opponent, only for his office to later deny any final decision had been taken.

Reporters had already assembled at the presidential palace for promised statements from Mansour and ElBaradei, which were then abruptly called off.

Salafi Islamists, who gave their backing to Morsi’s overthrow in a military coup on Wednesday, are holding out against ElBaradei’s appointment, arguing that he was a divisive choice, a source close to the discussions told reporters.

Mansour adviser Ahmed al-Muslimani said ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, remained the “strongest candidate.”

“He is on top of the list of names,” al-Muslimani told reporters.

The aide held out an olive branch to Morsi supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood as its leaders vowed to press protests rejecting his ouster.

“We extend our hand to the Muslim Brotherhood,” al-Muslimani told a press conference. “I think the Muslim Brotherhood has many opportunities in the coming period, to enter elections.”

The initial reports of ElBaradei’s appointment had been greeted with cheers in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Ittihadiya presidential palace, where opponents of Morsi set off firecrackers, frantically waved Egyptian flags and honked car horns.

The celebrations came as the Muslim Brotherhood staged a new show of force to demand the military restore Morsi to power, after 24 hours of violence that left 37 people dead and more than 1,400 injured.

Tamarod, or Revel, the grass-roots youth movement which organized the mass protests against Morsi that prompted the Egyptian Army to intervene, called for new demonstrations yesterday to counter the Islamists, sparking fears of clashes.

Thousands of Morsi supporters on Saturday mourned four Brotherhood members killed during protests against Morsi’s ouster.

The imam told the tearful crowd gathered outside Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque to pray for the “martyrs of legitimacy.”

Morsi, who has been in detention since overnight on Wednesday, had issued a defiant call for his supporters to defend his “legitimacy” as Egypt’s first freely elected president, in a prerecorded speech posted shortly after his ouster.

Influential Egyptian-born Islamist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, from his base in Qatar urging Egyptians to support Morsi.

Friday’s violence erupted despite talk of peaceful protests.

Residents of one Cairo district reported that bearded Islamists armed with machine guns, machetes and sticks clashed with them as they passed through their district overnight.

“The Brotherhood attacked the area with all kinds of weapons,” said Mohammed Yehya, who said he lost three friends in the mayhem.

In response, a spokesman for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party told reporters: “Not everyone with a beard belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The bloodletting continued on Saturday with gunmen killing a Coptic Christian priest in the Sinai Peninsula.